I'd agree with most of these issues, except perhaps the Cluttered Opener (but, ofc, I live near the server, so take that with a grain of salt).

The biggest offender to me right now is Darkside. I haven't had that gauge visible basically since it came out, as the highlight on Edge/Flood has been all I need for Dark Arts, and it's made... zero difference. That should not be the case for a "core mechanic".

That said, I don't want to just find 'something' to use Darkside on or to swap anything from MP or Blood costs to Darkside. If it doesn't do something unique and interesting, the mechanic will have just gone from the likes of a shared resource skill so undertuned as to never be worth casting that can safely be kept off one's hotbars to an obligatory but terrible-feeling one.

There's a tremendous amount of interesting stuff one can do with a time-based bar, though. Just look at HW DRG and Geirskogul's complexity (while still far from fleshed out or well situated, it had a bit more going on just between itself and the BotD CD than everything related to Life of the Dragon does now) before that was gutted.

Imagine then, Darkside (a time-drained resource) sourcing a toggle-based Blood Weapon that could build up mostly predictable but somewhat gamble-y burn phases? Let's say Darkside no longer increases damage in and of itself. Instead, you activate Blood Weapon, increasing Attack Speed and Damage by 5% at cost to further Darkside over time and thereafter both time and your potency dealt increases both the benefits and drain rate, maxing out at +20% Damage and Attack Speed. (For now, let's say the benefits increase linearly and the increased costs, quadratically.) You'd want to start ramping it up slightly before raid buffs, but not so early as to consume all your Darkside before getting out your fully buffed Shadowbringer (which, let's say, burns Darkside for double the normal benefit, such that you want to enter its GCD with minimal Darkside remaining). Voila, you've got a much more interesting burn loop than just "use Fell Cleave Bloodspiller a bunch under Inner Release Delirium."

If that added Attack Speed would make it too compressed, then move Shadowbringers to the GCD and increase its potency by a little under average ppgcd. If still not enough, make Salt and Darkness simulcastable or have Blood Weapon not only increase drain rate but also (linearly) increase MP costs (by up to 20%), reducing the number of Edges to be woven over its phase.

Of course, that still leaves the time between burn phases. Personally, I'd love to have a mini-burst phase or to intentionally desync DRK from the per-minutes, with some degree of flexibility, such as by having slower-building gauge components play a part. What would have been most interesting to me back in the day, when Souleater's heal (HW) and Syphon Strike's bonus MP (StB) were limited to Grit, if Grit just wasn't so wasteful to ever recast, would have been to make sure to keep up Scourge outside of Grit and time departure from Grit to damage spikes (Blood spenders, DA-AD, etc.) while maxing out Syphons and Souleaters under Grit between them. That particular concept obviously can't play out now that tank stances have been removed, but a similar interplay between "I want these actions under this state and to align this other state to these CDs (be they hard or soft [gauges, DoTs])" could still apply in some way... Hmm.

Other random fun stuff:
  • Dark Passenger (a dynamic oGCD, the effect of which varies based on the prior GCD). Not sure yet what to tie it to, but who doesn't like having access to effectively 7+ more skills via a single, highly fluid button?
  • The aforementioned Blood Weapon design instead fits Delirium and Blood Weapon instead alters our GCDs, turning Hard->Syphon->Eater into, say, Scourge->Coil (old Delirium animation)->Power Slash?
  • Living Shadow now duplicates your attacks (say, at 25% effect).
  • Give us plenty of access to self-sustain, but don't make its loops too easy. Think StB BW-Quietus->DA-AD, rather than just buffing the current AD and reducing it and C&S's recast time (and likely giving them another charge). The latter works, and would be a decent interim change, but something a bit more playful would be more ideal.